01 February 2012

Review: Bond Girl

Embarassingly, I had gotten some interest in this thinking, based solely on title and buzz, that this was sort of a reverse Bond book. Sort of like a chick-lit-spy-thriller.

It's not.

A better comparison, as made more or less everywhere else at this point, is The Devil Wears Prada on Wall Street. It's really not a great comparison - Prada was better, and it simply boils the idea down to "female protagonist in male-dominated field novel," which really tells us more about those who are making the comparison than the book itself.

With that said, the book follows a woman fresh out of school taking a job at a busy brokerage firm on Wall Street. There, she has a typical cast of characters, all pretty clear stereotypes, hits the predictable sexism, has a relationship, perseveres through it all, and reaches a fairly expected climax and ending. There's nothing groundbreaking here.

What it does do is tell a quick-paced, fun story. There are a number of fine moments, the lead character is frustratingly endearing, and, while the book is not unique, it does succeed quite well in what it set out to be and do, and there's something great about that, at least to me. I can handle derivative if it's good derivative.

So if you're into this thing, don't ignore it. If you're typically offended/annoyed by the existence of books like this, skip it. Chances are, you'll like it about as much as you think you will.